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My five favourite professional development resources from 2024
As the year draws to a close, my Instagram feed is flooded with “Top 10 Favourites for 2024” posts. While it’s a little unsettling how fast time has flown, it also reminds me to reflect on my highlights from the year. One thing I’ve focused on since graduating from university (with a helpful nudge from the Elm team) is committing to regular professional development (PD). So, I thought I’d share some of my favourite PD activities from the year. If any of these resonate with you, consider adding them to your list and carving out time for PD before the year ends—or even making it a New Year’s resolution. As…
- Australian Government, Communication, Communications professional, Culture, Leadership, Team performance
Clarity in purpose for communication teams
Commnication teams need a clear purpose to enable them to demonstrate the value they create for an organisation
Motivated reasoning and elections – how clever communications can help
Heads up: Political nerd post coming in hot! Years ago when I was thinking about what to focus my psych honours thesis on, I was reading a book called The Political Brain, by Drew Westen. (Strong recommend btw if you…
How to beat the social media algorithms
Post at least once a day. Only post three times a week. Make sure to put links in the caption. Put links in the comments. Post in the afternoon. Post in the morning. Use five hashtags. Use twenty-five hashtags. Short-form…
Taking an audience perspective
How often do you get so caught up in doing the doing and forget who you are doing it for? No matter how long you have worked in communications, we all fall into this trap at one point or another.…
Communicating with diverse audiences
When developing a communications strategy or designing stakeholder engagement, we often talk about segmenting your audience—defining who they are, their demographics, needs, challenges, and pain points. This segmentation is supposed to help us tailor our communication so it resonates more…
Personality tests: More than just a bunch of letters.
I am an ENFJ I am a Gryffindor I am a Parrot I am an Aquarius I am a 6-enneagram type We love labels. From our Hogwarts house to our zodiac sign, we crave a way to categorize ourselves and…
Great team culture doesn’t require an office
NSW Government’s new directive that public servants should work ‘principally’ from the office is a short sighted and disappointing move, not backed by research. Furthermore, the Premier’s quotes betray his assumptions (biases!) that people who work from home are sitting…
- Australian Government, Communication Strategy, Communications professional, internal communications, Professional development
You CAN measure internal communications
If you have ever worked in internal communications, you know measuring and reporting on your outcomes can be challenging. You know you should, but it’s haaaaarrrrd. The Gallagher State of the Service report found that 84% of internal communicators want…
The unspoken language: How internal communication shapes your culture
Whether it’s intentional or not, every organisation has a culture – a unique set of beliefs, values, and behaviours that shape how things get done. It is a critical contributor to capability and performance, and it’s the thing that will…
The importance of promoting communications careers
A couple of weeks ago, the Elm team participated in the St Clare’s College career expo. You might wonder why. At Elm, we aren’t a large consultancy looking to recruit high school graduates, so why would we attend? It’s a…
